MEDICS who failed to spot a Birmingham schoolgirl was dying of TB ‘missed opportunities’ to detect the disease, an independent review ruled.

But the inquest into Alina Sarag’s death was told none of the doctors had made ‘horrendous mistakes’.

Alina, aged 15, from Sparkhill, died in January last year – 18 months after she had been diagnosed with the latent form of the disease.

Her parents took Alina to see her GP 23 times in the space of four months. She was also taken to four Birmingham hospitals, but not one health professional realised her TB had become active.

Alina’s parents claimed one GP, Dr Sharad Pandit at Highgate Medical Centre, dismissed her symptoms as ‘all in the head’, suggested she was ‘lovestruck’ and should see a spiritual healer. The allegations have been denied by the doctor.

Dr Wayne Harrison, a consultant in public health, told the inquest that within 24 hours of Alina’s death the Heart of England Primary Care Trust had convened a panel to investigate what happened.

The panel was made up of a GP, experts in public health, TB and respiratory conditions and a paediatrician – all from outside Birmingham and independent. Dr Harrison said they obtained all the notes and records from Alina’s case.

“We went through it chronologically from her diagnosis in 2009 with latent TB to her death in January 2011,” he said.

“The panel didn’t draw attention to a particular horrendous mistake by any one person.

“But TB wasn’t always considered when it might have been, but when it was considered, it was never actually followed through – there were missed opportunities.”

He said in Birmingham there were 35 cases of TB per 100,000 people and it was concentrated amongst communities with families in Asia and Africa.

“The panel concluded there should be greater awareness of TB in patients in these high risk communities,” he said.

He added: “Looking back at the evidence, there were a number of opportunities where slightly different actions by different people might have had a different result,” he said.